Tuesday 10 February 1662/63

In the morning most of my disease, that is, itching and pimples, were gone. In the morning visited by Mr. Coventry and others, and very glad I am to see that I am so much inquired after and my sickness taken notice of as I did. I keep my bed all day and sweat again at night, by which I expect to be very well to-morrow. This evening Sir W. Warren came himself to the door and left a letter and box for me, and went his way. His letter mentions his giving me and my wife a pair of gloves; but, opening the box, we found a pair of plain white gloves for my hand, and a fair state dish of silver, and cup, with my arms, ready cut upon them, worth, I believe, about 18l., which is a very noble present, and the best I ever had yet. So after some contentful talk with my wife, she to bed and I to rest.

No doubt the Pepys arms appear elsewhere on the Web, but Google Images returned just this site:http://www.aaprescott.com/pepys/pepyspeeps.htmlDoes this depiction match match that on the front of Percival Hunt's "Pepys in the Diary"? (Can you verify, Jeannine?).Has the coat of arms been discussed in the Background somewhere? Can someone more armigeral than me explain the significance of two horses' heads and three fleur de lys, bar dexter (or is it sinister?)? And do we know its colors?

"So...You have just received your first decent bribe from a great client, disguised with care and taste, delivered in a reasonably appropriate context such as a time of illness. Excellent. You have taken a key step on your way to wealth."

(Beaming Sam nods...Eyeing the plate in its place of honor.)

"Unless you are serving in the Naval Office. Return immediately to Chapter Five."

"How to Survive Parliamentary Investigation into How You Amassed Your Fortune on a Clerk's Salary."

Bradford, The Coat of Arms is the same as the one on Hunt's book. Wish I could explain the significance, but alas, we'll have to find a coat of arms expert amongst the troops to help out here. Thanks for the link to that site.

BEND -An ordinary consisting of a band running diagonally across the shield from dexter chief to sinister base. A small bend is bendlet.

SABLE -Black.

ERASED -Cut off roughly, leaving a ragged edge.

ARGENT -Silver/White.

FLEUR-DE-LIS -A stylized form of lily; the emblem of the Kings of France. Applied to a lance tip so shaped.

From Wheatley's introduction to the diary:"The first of the name in 1273 were evidently but small copyholders. Within 150 years (1420) three or four of the name had entered the priesthood, and others had become connected with the monastery of Croyland as bailiffs, &c. In 250 years (1520) there were certainly two families: one at Cottenham, co. Cambridge, and another at Braintree, co. Essex, in comfortable circumstances as yeomen farmers. Within fifty years more (1563), one of the family, Thomas, of Southcreeke, co. Norfolk, had entered the ranks of the gentry sufficiently to have his coat-of-arms recognized by the Herald Cooke, who conducted the Visitation of Norfolk in that year. From that date the majority of the family have been in good circumstances, with perhaps more than the average of its members taking up public positions."http://pandemonium.tiscali.de/pub/gutenberg/4/2...

Thanks for that, Jeannine, which also seems to make sense of Sam's decision of 23 March 1661/62: "This morning was brought me my boy’s fine livery, which is very handsome, and I do think to keep to black and gold lace upon gray, being the colour of my arms, for ever." http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1662/03/23

Palm pressing always in Vogue, just do not get caught.(Or perhaps I’ve been reading too much on Bush and Abramoff.)"To receive a favor is to sell your liberty." Syrus Maxims" Beneficium accipere libertatem est vendere."then later it can be said "When he says he did you a favour he is asking for one." "quid quo pro"

“The Way to be Rich…” Which chapter says find out the name of mistress/boy friend [the one the wife must never know about or other wise there goes the money etc.,or thy puritan Boss and thy promotion] and then hint that thee know all the details.

Heraldry often incorporated puns on the person's name or something to do with his profession. I cannot think of how a horse's head could be connected in any way with a pun on Pepys, so maybe the first Pepys to bear arms was associated with horse-trading in some way. Maybe with France, thus the Fleur-de-lys. Incidently if a Bend on an heraldic shield went the other way, it meant you were of "sinister" or left-hand, ie. bastard descent.

Sam gives no clue here as to how he views this gift. He just seems to express simple pleasure in a lovely object, though he describes how it was "disguised" as a gift of small value gloves so maybe either he is aware this is rather a large gift which has strings attached or he is commenting favourably on the discretion of the giver. 18 pounds sterling would be 1620 pounds applying the x 90 rule for inflation: a very handsome gift. It is also very clearly just for Sam - as Mr W has gone to the trouble of having the coat of arms engraved on it.Wonder how that compares with the Australian Wheat Board giving $AUS300m to Saddam Hussein's personal account.......?

At the Royal Society site I find out that the portrait I posted minutes ago(again, I must say) is described by the curator as:"Head and shoulders, in a long wig and lace cravat. In oval frame on pedestal with motto "Mens cujusque is est Quisque". Engraved by R White after G Kneller. Frontispiece to his "Naval Memoirs", 1690"

So Aussie Sue cannot see the point of the Horse's head. Following yet another run-in with Our Sam, this was a later addition suggested by Mrs Pepys having viewed "The Godfather Pepys". (She had only asked Sam 'Why the long face ....) Mr Gertz no doubt has the script.

who, the day before yesterday, "made the most flat dead sermon...that ever [Sam'l] heard," was indeed a "a great scholler", later Master of Magdelene College, whose "books bequeathed...at his death in 1679 were kept [in what became the main library of the Pepys building] until 1834. He had contributed substantially to the cost of the building." http://www.magd.cam.ac.uk/pepys/architecture.html

Bradford, Pepys coat of arms link. I finally found a few moments to really look through the site where this led to and it's quite interesting. I recently bought (sight unseen) the book referenced (written by Chappell "Eight Generations of the Pepys Family 1500-1800") and was overwhelmed by the amount of information and how to make sense of how the people related, etc. Needless to say I put the book aside as it was too much for me to figure out. This site actually did all of the work and pulled the Sam/Elizabeth notes together. Thanks for the find~~you saved me hours of frustration!